


and if you just hold on

by angstlairde



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Gen, Sokka loves his girls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 11:11:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16911807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angstlairde/pseuds/angstlairde
Summary: "The overwhelming amount of testimony and evidence has convinced this council that Yakone is one of these unique benders and he exploited his ability to commit these heinous crimes. We find Yakone guilty of all charges and sentence him to life in prison."





	and if you just hold on

**Author's Note:**

> i probably should have finished this like a month ago akdjsjxj

Yakone drops them and runs and all at once Toph can see again - and Aang is running after the blood bender - _be careful_ she wants to shout, but she's not sure anything came out - and then Sokka is running over to her and she grabs his offered hand eagerly, desperately.

"Are you okay?" he demands, pulling her to him in a suffocating hug, but she can't complain because she's gripping him back just as hard - 

"As okay as I'll ever be. I -" and then she remembers her girls and gasps, and clutches Sokka harder. "Su and Lin - what if -" 

And she can't finish the sentence as she feels Sokka's body go stiff. 

"Listen, Aang went after Yakone, he's going to need bender backup. I'll get Su and Lin and meet you back at your apartment, okay?" 

She doesn't want to go after Yakone, she's terrified he's going to bloodbend her again, and it felt so much like dangling in oppressively hot air, with only Sokka's slipping hand to ground her, when she was totally blind. She doesn't want to run towards someone who can blind her again, but she really doesn't have any choice. 

"Okay," Toph says, and clutches Sokka's wrist as he starts to turn. 

"I'll keep them safe," he says whenever she doesn't say anything, and presses a swift kiss to the side of her head. 

"I know," she says, and means it as she feels him run out of the building.

Sokka has never felt more terrified in his life, and that's counting the time he was bloodbend by Hama, and the time he was dangling off one of Ozai's airships with a dislocated shoulder and a broken leg, and Toph hanging onto one hand just barely, and the time in the North Pole when he was sure they were all going to die, and -

There have been many times when Sokka feared for his life and the lives of the the people he cared about.

This is one of many, but fresh and fucking raw, and right now he has to protect two of his three favorite girls - pardon me, Katara - and he's not going to let them sit innocently by unprotected while a batshit crazy madman ran around the city.

The daycare Su stays at is above a small cafe and he takes the narrow staircase two steps at a time. He knocks twice on the dood, and Wang opens the door, a confused look on his face.

“Councillor Sokka!”

“I'm here to pick up Suyin Beifong.”

A little confused, because Sokka doesn't normally pick Su up so early, but not questioning it, he turned with a,

“Please wait here, I'll go get her.”

A few seconds tick by, but it feels like hours with the urgency Sokka feels and he anxiously paces the short hallway, turning quickly when he hears the door open again, and Wang reappears with small, happily babbling Suyin in one arm and her bag in the other. Breathing a sigh of relief, Sokka offers his hands, and Su reaches immediately, stretching away from the caretaker towards Sokka. He snatches the eighteen month up and slings her bag over a shoulder, Su's small hands latching onto first the collar of his shirt and then over his sternum as she lays her head against his shoulder. He feels something settle in his chest with the small weight of Suyin cuddled against his chest, and he can breathe slightly easier. One down, two to go.

“Thanks, Wang,” Sokka says over his shoulder as he takes the stairs down two at a time, the drop making Su giggle.

“We're gonna go pick up Lin,” he finds himself telling her. “You wanna go get your big sister?”

He tells her small details about his day, like what he had for lunch, the weather when he got up, the fact that he thought he saw some gray hairs in his hair. Talking. It seems to be all he can do well.

They arrive at Lin's tutor's house, push the door open, and Suyin immediately starts chanting,

“Lin, Lin, Liiin,” when she sees her sister sitting at a table resolutely flipping through a book about who-knows-what as Miss Akna desperately told her it was time to go home.

“Lin,” Sokka calls out, bouncing Su a little bit to shush her. Lin barely glances from her book about - _Comprehensive Guide to Fire Nation Geographical Features_ \- and continues reading.

“Lin, come on, we gotta go home.”

A frown crosses Lin's face and she shakes her head.

“Wanna finish reading.”

“Lin,” Sokka says, a little desperation seeping into his voice. “Come on, you can finish reading it as we go home.”

Akna shifts a little uncomfortably by the table.

“‘S it your book?” at her nod, he dug a couple yuans out of his pocket and slapped them in her hand. “Here, go get another one - Lin! We have to go, right now. Get your bag, we gotta head out. Chief's orders,” he says after a minute of silence. “Both of them,” he adds with an attempt on humor, and Lin finally stands up, nose still stuck in her book.

“Thanks, Akna,” he tells the Water Tribe girl as he leaves, Lin's hand firmly in one hand and Su carefully cradled in the other.

Toph's apartment is only a few blocks away, but it feels like longer because today, of all days, people keep trying to stop him, asking about Yakone, about the economy, _we named our son after you_ , and he's had too long a stressful day to be polite.

“Thanks,” he says to someone who stopped him and thanked him for everything he's done, “now get out of the way, I'm very busy.”

Toph's apartment is on the ground floor, in the back corner, and Sokka lets go of Lin's hand to dig the key out of his pocket and unlock the door.

Lin immediately kicks off her shoes and shuffles around the kitchen for a snack as Sokka puts Su's bag on one of the hooks by the door. He doesn't take off his shoes, like he normally would.

Su had been uncharacteristically quiet the last few minutes of her trip, and as he shifts her to the other shoulder, the stink wafting from her backside makes him realize why.

Changing her poopy diaper is never as bad as he makes it seem when he bitches about Toph making him change her, and it is honestly a welcome distraction. Nothing like changing a poop diaper to get your mind off the batshit bloodbender on the loose.

_Shit._

Sokka stares down at Su on the changing table, screws up his face at her. Her giggles are usually soothing to the soul, but this time it makes his chest tight. He brushes his thumb across her forehead.

“I'm gonna keep you safe, princess,” he promises, picking her back up. She mumbles something that sounds like it might be _papa_ as she tucks herself sleepily against his shoulder, and he tries to ignore what she may or may not have said, and focus to getting her to sleep. It seems he had messed up her naptime.

Sokka doesn't put her down like he normally would once she's asleep.

Lin is sitting lotus-style in her chair at the table, sucking up plain noodles like she likes, bent over her Fire Nation geography book still, leaning on one arm. Sokka settles on the couch, his feet propped up on the coffee table.

“Hey, Junior,” he says to get Lin's attention. She looks up with a miniature Toph-scowl on her face.

“Don't call me that,” she tells him, but gives him her attention anyway. He lifts a hand and gestures to the seat next to him.

“Why don't you come over and sit with your favorite uncle?” he asks. “Last I checked, your mom doesn't have any rules against food out of the kitchen.”

Lin rolls her eyes at him but grabs her bowl and book and curls up against him on the left side.

 

The sun is nearing the horizon, low light filtering in the windows, Lin and Su both asleep against him, and Sokka feels like he cannot breathe, because it has been too long since he saw Toph last. Despite his best efforts, the only things running through his head are all the horrible things that could be happening to Toph or that could happen to the girls. He groans. _Keep it together, Sokka_. He doesn't know what he will do if Toph isn't okay.

Suddenly, there are footsteps in the hallways outside the apartment, hurried, and he stiffens, not for the first time wishing he could bend, ready for whoever it might be on the other side.

The door bursts open and Sokka is about to surge to his feet with Toph comes barreling inside. She freezes, head turning to face the general direction of the couch as Sokka drinks in the sight of her.

“Sokka?” she asks, voice small and breathless.

“Toph,” he breathes, opens his mouth again to say something else but nothing comes out and he only stares.

“Sokka,” she says again, this time full of relief, stumbling over to him, crashing into his right side. Sokka instantly wraps his arm tight around her shoulders as her arms go around him, holding onto him tightly. “The girls? They're -”

“They're alright, they're perfect,” he says when she doesn't keep talking. He presses his nose against her hair. “You? You good?”

He feels her nod into his chest, feels on hand reach up to trace her fingers down Su's back, and then to caress the back of Lin's.

“ _Thank you_ ,” Toph says, muffled into his shirt. Sokka can breathe again. He has Toph and Suyin and Lin all together in his arms. Yakone is presumably behind bars for good, because Toph wouldn't come home if he weren't.

“Of _course_ , Toph.”

  
  
 


End file.
